ENTER THE BEN
Ben Shapiro’s mind in motion is often a work of art, even if his hair isn’t. He’s micro-machine fast, he’s eloquent, he can be a sarcastic bastard (which I enjoy) and more often than not—he’s right (morally and politically). And that’s because he bases the majority of his arguments on an Enlightenment-minded, reason-oriented Aristotle-infused philosophical foundation or as I like to call it: Randy Ayn-Lite. And if one removed the religious elements from Ben’s worldview, you might very well end up with the most powerful, articulate Classical Liberal (Objectivish) thinker in the galaxy (after me).
But for the moment, Ben is jacuzzi deep in the religiosity of orthodox Judaism which necessarily clouds and biases some of his reasoning processes, although he’s intellectually honest enough to avoid relying on ‘but God said so’, in forming most of his arguments. However, if pushed on certain subjects like morality, abortion or fabulous gay weddings, Ben has a hard time making the case without going back to God. Although he tries.
In 2015, Ben tackled a subject that only the bravest of the brave would attempt. He tried to explain why Jews vote for the Left. And he made several interesting arguments in the process. But one can’t watch the presentation (above) without experiencing the distinct feeling that Ben was leveling an attack on secular Jews who do not subscribe to his religious worldview. Ben’s argument that the majority of Jews worship secular Leftism is patently WRONG, in the immortal words of John McLaughlin.
I have an alternative view but first a definition that no one on earth seems capable of offering.
WHAT OR WHO IS A JEW?
Created by a Jew, starring a Jew—WHO knew?
It’s a challenge for the ages, time lords included. How does your average Jew, Jew-hater or Jew-obsessor figure out who these people are? For a more ridiculous and exhaustive list, you can check this link out. And then there’s always the mental infants at Jew Watch.
I would argue as follows.
There are several groups of people associated with Jews and/or Judaism and while they can intertwine, they are not identical and so we need to identify who’s who. Here is the summary:
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Religious Jews (Faith-based): This pertains to anyone who agrees with some version of Judaism as a religion and follows the rules, regulations and cultural approaches to life associated with it. Anyone can convert to Judaism by this standard and therefore anyone can become a Jew. Mazel Tov!
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Genetic Jew (Haplogroup-based): Any person who is related by way of so-called ‘semitic’ haplogroups (DNA markers) associated with Jews and their general genetic homogeneity as compared with non-Jews. As the genetic determinists will tell you, we often find this homogeneity connected to very high IQ test scores (particularly on the Ashekenazi side) and the high achievement that one might expect to find associated with it. Many reasons for this which I’m not going into other than to say whether it’s the Torah or Chinese literature, if you have hundreds of years of intellectual refinement by way of constant study, you might end up with some smart cookies (fortune or otherwise).
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Cultural Jew (Bagel-based): Someone who has grown up with, or adopted through assimilation the actual ‘religion’ of the Jews (that Shapiro alludes to but gets wrong). This is a sub-culture that is subordinate and part of Western Civilization, inexorably linked to it throughout history, philosophy and the multitude of expressions thereof BUT with two consistent themes, ever present and discussed below.
The above three categories can overlap, conflate and are often confused with each other, fluctuating to flummox anyone who cares to try and put a bird on them. Since the Religious Jew is a matter of choice and the genetic Jew is a matter of science (although we’re just arbitrarily slapping the name ‘Jew’ onto some genetic material), the actual Jew can only be found in the 3rd category since it’s the only one based on an objective standard of truth. Namely, IDEAS. (‘truth’ being the conformity of mind with reality)
THE RELIGION OF THE JEW
Ripped from the pages of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the actual religion of the JEW is:
A deadly combination of intellectualism and individualism!
Socrates, a JEW? Fake-News!
Whether your semitic buddy is a neo-Marxist, a conservative, an Objectivist, the King of Rock N’ Roll or a Marvel Comics Godfather, Jews have appropriated and integrated the Greco-Roman (more Athenian) aptitude and attitude of dealing with reality by way of the mind and sometimes the fist, and have succeeded at life (and then some), throughout history, as a direct result of this fact. They have also mixed this ‘Intellectualism’ together with a semi-tribal form of ‘collective’ individualism that has kept them integrated yet distinct in every society they’ve entered. Even their enemies agree (kind of).
The very notion of accountability that derives from a belief in a singular God—the gift of the Jews, whose same God 3D-printed out (in stone) a simple code of morality which he demanded allegiance to (or else!), set them apart from the moral relativistic polytheistic momos that existed and continue to exist around them.
In essence, by convincing these people (classic flavor Jews) that there was one God associated with a form of (semi-subjective) objective morality, they were placed at extreme odds with…almost everyone! And this necessitated a large degree of freedom of thought, motion and habit on the part of our ‘chosen people’ that would lead to religious wars and persecution for thousand of years. But this methodology would also filter the Jewish cultural approach to life and Western Civilization itself in such a way as to grow a spirit of defiance in the face of group-think, idolatry and general idiocy (for the betterment of mankind). And if that doesn’t do it for you—Mad Magazine, the theory of relativity, Superman and a cure for Polio!
Monotheism by way of the Jews set them apart as it did to everyone who followed in their footsteps, for better or worse. And their integration of Greco-Roman culture turned them into unrelenting advocates of intellectual individualism, prepared to fight and die for their beliefs and freedom. And so they did.
Several thousand years of absorbing a multitude of cultures, of ideas, of philosophy, of people, (of food!) always subordinate to the need for a large degree of liberty (and celebrating such in their religious holidays) combined with a passion for the MIND, for ideas, for science, for trade, for rational inquiry, even when intermixed or subordinate to faith, produced a strain of post-Hellenistic intellectualism that would not, could not die.
And so, that is your JEW, goys and girls. The Man of the Mind. The modern Greek without the super-cool Gods (SAD!).
Now, the racists, tribalists or religious folks may not agree but yes, anyone can be a Jew by this standard and many of us are. Keep in mind that a plethora of brilliant Jewish thinkers did not sound, look or act like the stereotypes (Larry?) that we associate with American Jewry. I would say that those current stereotypes are really an East Coast / New York cultural mish-mash aberration (adored by all) that produced a sub-sub-culture which many associate with Jewishness. And why not? We love New York! (although I prefer the Sergio Leone version)
Ok, now that I’ve defined the essence of Jews as intellectual individualists (and you all agree), I will now explain WHY they vote for the LEFT in the USA.
WHY ARE ALL THE JEWS COMMIES?
American Jews have long associated Liberalism as a political concrete representing the ‘intellectual individualism’ that I reference above. And this made sense. Liberal ideas such as judging men by their actions and values (and not by the collective DNA of their ancestry) were of paramount importance to Jewish survival and success. And who best represented this ‘brand’ of equality to new Jewish immigrants? Democrats, of course. In other words, Jews bought into the idea that this ‘formerly’ pro-slavery, race-obsessed political party wanted new immigrants to have an opportunity to grow as part of the American experiment, free of persecution—and that Republicans did NOT. And the Dems have done a good job of pitching this idea ever since, although these days its evolving into a form of illiberalism characterized by interest group warfare and identity politics, often directed at Jews.
In addition to Liberalism, many Jews coming over from Eastern Europe erroneously believed that secular, super-fun and supposedly science-based Marxism was their only pathway to live within a pogrom-free future, as alternative political ideologies were often associated with their subjugation. Just ask Alfred Dreyfus or my pals at the Judengasse. Of course, these folks never experienced a Rights-Respecting Constitutional Republic of the American variety even though their intellectual pursuits, in part, led to its creation by way of the Enlightenment. Instead, they came here with their brilliant minds, rich cultural history and biases directed toward so-called ‘gentiles’ whose political, economic and cultural institutions were often perceived as being inexorably linked to the machinery of their persecution.
Operation Paper Clip probably didn’t help to soothe their concerns. Just as conspiracy theories about Jews weren’t assisted by these two traitorous assholes. And not in that order.
It all goes back to tribalism on both sides of the Judeo-Christian divide, imported from the old country(s). And that tribal suspicion and animosity was championed by folks like Henry Ford, Joseph Kennedy, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, George Lincoln Rockwell, Richard M. Nixon and thousands of the political and economic elite that saw ethnic-Jewish culture as a threat to the stability of American society and Western life. A sad mess and an unnecessary one considering that Jews were emancipated by the very ideas that made America possible. Plus, it wasn’t like the founders of their new home were exactly disposed toward anti-semitism.
Of course, things have changed. Many self-identified Jews have moved over to the ‘right’ side of the street and everything in between. And then there were those Jews who were always there to begin with.
In Canada, particularly in Quebec, most Jews vote overwhelmingly against Marxists and the like, represented by various ultra-left wing parties. Even Israel, which had every opportunity and impetus to create a ‘socialist paradise’, opted for a democratic-capitalist structure, based on the British and American models which endures to this day.
In this scene, a Canadian Jew takes on the dictatorship of the Gods, in the tradition of a anti-semitic Wagnerian opera. BTW, Wagner was scared that he was secretly Jewish. True story!
The fact is that Jews have been anti-totalitarian for two-thousand-plus years despite recently inventing (if we can blame all Jews for Karl) and supporting political systems that inadvertently led to the persecution and murder of millions under Communism (including lots of Jews!). And yet, a majority of American Jews at least still feel that the Democratic party is their best defense against a form of American nationalism, populism and right-wingery that they associate with their old pals back in eastern Europe or post-Weimar Germany. Actually, in the modern era, this all goes back to Constantine’s brilliant idea to use Jews as the scapegoat in his, ‘let’s glue the Roman Empire back together again via the previously persecuted Jewish-cult of Christianity, whose lord we had wacked’.
So yes, Ben Shapiro is correct about the fact that a majority of American Jews vote for the LEFT. But it’s not because they worship ‘secular Leftism’. They vote for Democrats, and make common cause with those who often seek their destruction (Obama, Ellison, etc.) to fight for a perceived greater good—their own self-preservation and the continued advocacy of what’s left (pun) of Liberalism in America.
ARISTOTLE’S DEFIANT CHILDREN
‘Intellectualism’, ‘Individualism’ subordinate to a fluid form of Classical Liberalism subsumes the political methodology of modern Jews, as a cultural expression and represented by their striving to understand and promote man’s mind as the solution to thousands of years of barbarism, much of which they have experienced first hand, immortalized into a religious expression and culture, concretized (literally) by Michelangelo’s David. Wow. All in one complete run-on sentence.
Wild and crazy Jew, David. Photograph by Jörg Bittner Unna
The defiant individualist intellectual, for better or for worse—that is the Jew, whether American, Canadian, Israeli or otherwise. And this is my answer, my challenge to Ben Shapiro’s erroneous assumption. So no, it’s not that all Jews are communists or marxists or on the Left—it’s much worse than that. They’re GREEK. Without the tzaziki or saganaki (opa!). Which is their real sin. And Jews vote for those who they see as more closely aligned with their evolved post-Hellenistic (now Jewish) intellectual life and pursuits, constantly guarding against the forces of totalitarianism that have destroyed them in the past.
Of course, one cannot fight an evil by adopting and practicing it. As such, creating an ethnic tribe out of what we now term as Enlightenment-minded ‘Liberalism’ is perhaps not the best idea, particularly when there is an ‘in group’ (Jews) and ‘out group’ (Gentiles). But it’s not like anyone set out to do this on purpose, outside of Abraham and the Ancient Alien that he met in the desert. It just kind of like happened. But this is the reality as it is today. American Jews see their sub-culture (tribe) as best protected by going Left, to a degree. And yet, many are pushing back when the pendulum swings too far and liberalism becomes illiberalism. Thank God for that! Or Ayn, as the case may be.
So in closing chaverim, I am arguing that the word ‘Jew’, defined in it’s only objective form is a synonym for the Men of the Mind: those advocates of Enlightenment and Renaissance values, of Classical Liberalism and the ancient intellectual cultures and heroes that laid the foundation for these ideas. Essentially, they are all Aristotle’s defiant children. And you can be one too!
Now, discuss amongst yourselves.